A History of Photography in USC Libraries Collections

“Man in native American dress at the Pacific Southwest Museum,” 20th century

In this photograph, we see a man wearing traditional Native American clothing. We see that he is wearing a headpiece that is made from eagle feathers with the same feathers sprawled along his arms. In Native American culture, eagle feathers are representative of an individual that is highly respected and noted for unselfish acts toward their community. In addition, he is wearing a traditional patterned and beaded jacket of some sort and is holding what seems to be a drum and a mallet—presumably instruments or tools closely tied with historically Native traditions. What is interesting about this photo is that the man wearing all of these items is a white man, and under all of these items, he is wearing a suit and tie. This photograph not only appropriates Native American culture, but it also represents the colonization of America and how the Europeans systematically manipulated Native Americans in order to gain territory during early colonial efforts. One example would be how the colonizers purposefully infected the Native Americans with smallpox and measles. The colonizers already had prior experience with these diseases, but the Native Americans had never experienced these diseases before and had no idea how to treat them, thus causing many fatalities amongst the natives. This photograph is a visual representation of the creation of the United States and how the colonizers took advantage of the natives in order to forcibly take territory and drive natives from their homeland to cultivate their own society and country.

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